You guys are all relatively young, who’s who and what is the average age?
Masaki Murashita: I’m 23 years old, singer and guitarist.
Travis Thune: I’m 26 years old and play drums.
Jack Fliegler: I’m 18 years old, lead guitar.
Sunao Arai: I’m 26 years old and play bass guitar.
What bands got you into metal? Who would you say are your main influences?
Masaki: Definitely Megadeth, early Metallica, Slayer and Iron Maiden. Those are my core influences.
Travis: I started listening to early Megadeth, early Metallica, Slayer, Sacred Reich and Pantera. Now I listen to several different kinds of metal and different bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Hypocrisy, and numerous other metal bands.
Jack: Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth got me into metal but my current favorite bands would be Kalmah, Children of Bodom, Symphony X, and Wintersun.
Sunao: Metallica and Anthrax.
How long has the band been together?
Masaki: It’s been just about two years now.
Travis and I started jamming together in early 2007 and we started finding members. After we went through a few lineup changes, we ended up finding Jack as our lead guitarist in September 2008 after we released Who Needs A Shepherd?
What’s the metal scene like in
Masaki: Arizona seems like it has big metal bands coming out of there all the time like Sacred Reich, Flotsam and Jetsam, Vehemence, Abigail Williams and Job For A Cowboy.
Jack: AZ has an awesome metal scene. It’s not as big as
Hemoptysis is a peculiar name, but fitting for a metal band. Why that name of all things? Is there someone in the band that’s a fan of medical dramas?
Masaki: Well, good question!
Travis: My wife is a pharmacist who specializes in infectious diseases. We were looking for a band name and I asked her to throw some sick medical terms at me. She told me a few and not only did Hemoptysis sound the best, but it had the coolest, most metal meaning; coughing up blood.
I hear Carcass and Megadeth in your sound; a thrashy death metal vibe. How would you describe your sound to someone that hasn’t experienced Hemoptysis before?
Masaki: If you dig old school metal, you’ll love it. Especially for those of you who started listening to Metal from early Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and discovered more extreme, but also melodic music such as Carcass, At The Gates, Deicide and so on. Our sound is unique, brutal, heavy, melodic and catchy.
Jack: We’re based around thrash but aren’t satisfied with sounding like everyone else. We try to add melody, harmony, and excitement to our sound.
How long have the songs in your Who Needs A Shepherd? E.P. been around? Is this all fresh material or have you had this stuff laying around for a bit?
Masaki: The title track of the EP, Who Needs A Shepherd? was the first song I wrote. I wrote most of the riffs while we were jamming together. “Shadow of Death” and “A Traitor” were songs I wrote before I started Hemoptysis. I was playing the riffs from Shadow of Death many times at the rehearsal space and Travis asked me, “Whose song is that?” Then I told him, “It’s mine, dude! It’s mine.” He thought I was playing around with some cover songs and was surprised it was mine. That’s how we started writing C standard tuned songs otherwise I don’t know if we would have had any C standard songs with this band.
Have you guys gotten any attention from major independent labels? I’d figure if they have heard the e.p. they’d be sniffing around, you know?
Masaki: It would be awesome if we could get some attention from a major or independent label, but it doesn’t happen in one day, you know? We do what we can everyday.
You’re working on a full-length album right now will any of the material on the e.p. resurface on the record? What can we expect from new material? What’s a time frame for you guys to get the album completed?
Masaki: I personally want to rerecord all the songs on EP with Jack’s solos, but we will probably put all new songs on the full-length. It’s hard to explain what you can expect from the new material, but I’d say you won’t be disappointed, especially the songs that have Jack’s influences. I just can’t wait until we lay down all the songs for the full-length. I hope it’ll happen by the end of the year.
Jack: Honestly we don’t even know what to expect from our new material. We’re trying different ideas and sounds left and right. I can tell you that we will not let this album be completed until we feel 100% confident in all of the material and that it’s an awesome, original sound.
Here’s a list of things please tell us the first thing that comes to mind…
Death Magnetic:
Masaki: Better than
Travis: Sucks balls…
Jack: Best full-length since the Black Album but it’s really not that great.
Sunao: I don’t hate it, but don’t love it like the Black Album.
Masaki: I don’t watch football, but it’s nice to see some local sports teams do well. I hope they will get revenge and be the champions next year!
Travis: I don’t watch football but when the home team is in the Super Bowl it is kind of exciting. I always go for the underdog.
Jack: I’m not a fan of birds.
Sunao: I don’t really care about the Cardinals, although I do love the Phoenix Suns.
Hemoptysis:
Travis: Thrash and death merge to make a sick and original sound.
Sunao: I have to try not to get that symptom by smoking too much.
Dave Mustaine:
Masaki: He is my greatest hero all the time. Great guitarist!
Travis: Awesome guitarist and Megadeth is awesome.
Jack: Great guitarist and musician.
Sunao: He is great musician.
Bay Area Thrash:
Masaki: Exodus came to my mind immediately. It seems like the Bay Area Thrash scene is back now and I hear a lot of bands that are influenced from Exodus and Testament.
Nu-Metal:
Masaki: I do not consider it Metal. Where are the guitar solos? What the hell are those weird vocal effects?
Travis: Retarded…
Jack: Crappy! Oooh AH-AH-AH-AH !!!! (Disturbed)
Sunao: I don’t hate it as long as they got cool sounds. If they sound all same, I wouldn’t listen to it for sure.
Black Tide:
Travis: I’ve never heard their stuff but I’ve heard of people referencing them as an influence….
Thanks for your time. I certainly will recommend the e.p. Who Needs A Shepherd? to anyone with a love of aggressive heavy metal. Where can people get more info on the band?
Masaki: Thanks for giving us a chance! You can check us out on our myspace page www.myspace.com/hemoptysismetal and www.hemoptysismetal.com will be launched soon as well. Please buy Who Needs A Shepherd?, T-shirts and come out to the shows to support us! We won’t waste any money from you, it will be used for forthcoming full-length, so if you dig our stuffs, please support us!
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